Thursday, October 13, 2016

Lone Wolves

Two of the games I picked up the other day were Fantasy Flight's new Star Wars games, specifically the basic boxed set for The Force Awakens, and the many-hundred page hardcover Force and Destiny. I'll have more to say about these in a later posts, but one thing that disappointed me about the FFG books is the lack of character write-ups; there are no stats for the likes of Obi-Wan Kenobi or Darth Vader, for example, even though they're featured prominently on the cover. Likewise, unlike prior licensed SW games (West End and WotC) there's no supplementary books to purchase that include these stars of the Star Wars universe. I semi-interrogated a game shop employee yesterday regarding this, and the explanation was...well, a bit less than satisfactory. For me, such write-ups are important in terms of figuring scale for a system...as well as I like to see how a system models a specific intellectual property in game terms.

[and, yes, I realize I'm one of those people who likes to rip on character write-ups. I still appreciate a starting point for analysis. Especially in a non-level based game like F&D, it would be nice to get an idea of how much XP goes into making an "old geezer Kenobi," for example]

Anyway, after finishing the Luke Cage series, I started looking at the old Marvel Superhero RPG write-ups for the characters in the show (and the other MCU titles also) just to see how close they came to modeling the powers and stats of their comic book counterparts. Some of these I have available to me, some are available from various fan sites on-line (Jessica Jones, as a comic book character, was not published till after TSR had closed down their original MSH line). While they're all pretty close, there are definitely some differences...and since I prefer the show-versions, I thought it would be fun to do my own write-ups based on the characters' portrayals in their respective series.

I've offer the following for perusal to the interested, presumably people who'd like to run an old school MSH game in the same grim and gritty style as the MCU. Keep in mind that Marvel does NOT due "granular" very well, especially at the lower power levels...but MSH is a lot faster (and less legally dicey) to use for write-ups than Heroes Unlimited (my "go-to" game for granularity).

Luke Cage (as "Power Man") and Daredevil were originally published in the 1984 adventure module MH4: Lone Wolves. Even thought this was written for the "basic" Marvel game, the write-ups changed very little with the advent of the Advanced game. As such, my write-ups should be considered compatible with either version of the classic MSH system.***

DAREDEVIL

Matt Murdock, Altered Human

Fighting: Incredible (40)

Agility: Incredible (40)

Strength: Good (10)

Endurance: Excellent (20)

Reason: Good (10)

Intuition: Monstrous (75)

Psyche: Good (10)

Health: 110

Karma: 95

Resources: Typical (6)

Popularity: 13 (Good)

POWERS

Matt is blind, but he has trained and developed his remaining senses to such a degree that he has may operate far beyond the capability of a normal human. He may sense individuals by their smell and heartbeat, even through the exterior walls of a building and can sense objects by the way air passes around them. While being blind limits Matt in some ways (he cannot see color or read signs, for example) he is unaffected by effects (like darkness and flash attacks) that hinder others. He wears special body armor that provides him with Typical protection against physical attacks while not limiting his movement, and he uses a collapsable fighting staff made of Incredible strength material.

TALENTS

Matt is a licensed attorney and possesses the Law talent. He is trained in the use of Blunt Weapons, and has extensive Martial Arts training (the equivalent of A, B, and C in the Advanced game).

***

JESSICA JONES

Altered Human

Fighting: Excellent (20)

Agility: Good (10)

Strength: Remarkable (30)

Endurance: Incredible (40)

Reason: Good (10)

Intuition: Remarkable (30)

Psyche: Excellent (20)

Health: 100

Karma: 60

Resources: Typical (6)

Popularity: 4 (Poor)

POWERS

Jessica has some small (Poor) degree of Invulnerability, reducing all damage received by -2 column shifts. She also has the power of Flight (also at Poor rank), which she describes as being "more like controlled leaping;" however, Jessica prefers regular terrestrial means of getting around, for a variety of reasons.

TALENTS

Jessica is a skilled, licensed detective and has the Detective/Espionage skill. She has also received training in Resisting Domination and has developed a discipline of mental exercises to strengthen her will against possible mind control.

***

LUKE CAGE ("POWER MAN")

Carl Lucas, Altered Human

Fighting: Excellent (20)

Agility: Good (10)

Strength: Incredible (40)

Endurance: Remarkable (30)

Reason: Good (10)

Intuition: Good (10)

Psyche: Good (10)

Health: 100

Karma: 30

Resources: Poor (4)

Popularity: 11* (Good)

*Luke has been accused of a crime he didn't commit. If he is cleared of the charges, his popularity will increase to 21 (Excellent).

POWERS

Luke's hardened body provides him with Remarkable protection against physical attacks, the equivalent of steel or reinforced concrete. Against energy attacks, his protection drops four ranks to Poor. His accelerated healing allows him to heal as if he possessed Incredible endurance.

TALENTS

Prior to his time at Seagate prison, Luke was in the Military and possesses this talent, though he dislikes and avoids using guns. He has received significant training in boxing, giving him the equivalent of Martial Arts B in the Advanced game.

[minor characters and villains...including Wilson Fisk ("Kingpin"), Claire Temple ("Night Nurse"), Trish Walker ("Hellcat"), Frank Castle ("Punisher"), Elektra, and Misty Knight...may be updated in a later post. Maybe. Lots of other stuff to write about, too. Popularity for all characters determined based on the rules provided in the Advanced game]

12 comments:

some of the main characters in the original star wars trilogy would have thousands of xp, more than any pc could ever be expected to accumulate during a "normal" campaign. (one problem the game has is that it breaks at very high xp) writeups of these seem pointless to me. vader and obi-wan would fall into that category.

some have official stats, lando is part of an official module. i assume this will happen more often as more modules are produced. to waste space in core rulebooks for that seems like a bad idea.

but there's one character that would be quite useful and the fact that he is never statted is quite disappointing. that character is luke.

his progression through the films could be matched to his progression through a few careers and his xp wouldn't be anything a player could not achieve as well. there could even be 3 different lukes, one for each corebook, as his progression would match those.

btw, what was the explanation of the game shop employee? i don't think there has ever been any official statement about this issue.

but as you are well aware not having official stats for well-known characters provides you with the pleasure of statting them up yourself. ;)

- avoid the "nerd rage" (my phrase, not hers) that inevitably accompanies the statting of any beloved characters- to give GMs their own creative license- that the film characters are so beyond the realm of the PCs and their potential that any interaction with their likes (Kenobi, Vader, Luke, Yoda, etc.) should be futile at best

However, she did say there was no "official statement" on the issue. This was just the presumptions inferred from various FFG forums.

I'm amazed at the lack of existing character write-ups in F&D. You'd think with such a gigantic tome of rules, they could afford to spare a page or two to include the cover characters!

Incidentally, I started planning out my own Star Wars campaign after reading over your thoughts on the different iterations (before the FFG versions). Since my patience for heavy crunch has worn thin - and my knowledge of the Expanded Universe is extremely limited - I'll probably be using the original WEG version from 1987. Thanks for your posts on the games from a while back!

The original WEG rules are still pretty good. As I mentioned over at Barking Alien the other day, the animated Star Wars Rebels is a very good series for inspiring a "Rebellion Era" campaign. Check it out, if you haven't already.; )

I seem to recall Jessica NOT being able to overpower Luke in the JJ series (when he was being mind-controlled by the Purple Man). In the MSH game, a character can still grapple an opponent with a higher strength score.

When assigning strength scores, I looked at the material strength charts (and breaking FEATs) to get an idea of character's maximums. Luke is shown (in the series) busting through buildings and prison walls fairly readily, which I'd take to be steel-reinforced concrete. Jessica routinely kicks open fire doors and breaks (presumably) steel chains and mag locks, but she doesn't display the same type of destructive force Luke does.

Either character (with a strength in the Remarkable-Incredible range) would have zero problems throwing around opponents...even Luke Cage-sized opponents (and unlike the comics, the show's Luke doesn't appear to have the super-dense bone structure that doubles his weight...he's just uber-durable). When Jessica fights Luke, she can Slam/Stun him no problem, but she doesn't bruise him or make him bleed.

Hmm...actually, I might have to go back and watch their fights; maybe she doesn't Slam/Stun Cage when they're brawling. If she DOES, I'll either have to up her strength to the same level (Incredible) or reduce his endurance since...now that I think about it...the rules stipulate you canNOT Slam/Stun unless your strength is at least equal to the opponent's endurance. Well, unless you have the martial arts talent (which Jessica doesn't display).

Okay. Went back and re-watched the (physical) brawl between Jessica and Luke. I dropped Luke's endurance to Remarkable, instead adding the regeneration power (in official write-ups, he's always possessed a low rank regen which has no effect besides shifting his endurance one rank for healing. Now that's back).

Jessica was a better fighter than I remembered and I upped her fighting and agility to Excellent and Good respectively. Still wouldn't call her fighting style evidence of "martial arts;" however, with Luke's decrease in endurance, she can now execute Stun/Slams, as in the show. By upping her fighting ability, it gives her a better chance to Block attacks (per the Advanced MSH rules), though it's apparent she's making good use of karma points in that particular fight.

Please recognize that her normal strength of Remarkable allows her to one-shot normal humans, like Killgrave and Reva.

In the fight with Luke, she didn't want to hurt him and though she was stronger than him (as proven the first time they tested their strength) his invulnerability was still superior to her strength (as I recall in the modern comics at least, he's pretty darn near invulnerable). That was my take away from it.

Though in all fairness, Marvel Comics has never fully rated her strength and I don't think she's tested her limits.

The scene in which Jessica seems to overpower Luke is one of their sex scenes...Jessica forces Lukes arms behind his back and Luke has a look of amazement upon his face. But everything else I agree with. :)